[ beli G Chap - X ' pears— STRAWBERRIES. 351 



t}j e - variability, it is now positively known that many kinds reproduce by seed 



5 Urrn ft , ^ *^ e ^ding characters of their race." 



Strawberries (Fragaria). — This fruit is remarkable on account of the 

 number of species which have been cultivated, and from their rapid improve- 

 ment within the last fifty or sixty years. Let any one compare the fruit of 

 one of the largest varieties exhibited at our Shows with that of the wild 

 wood strawberry, or, which will be a fairer comparison, with the somewhat 

 larger fruit of the wild American Virginian Strawberry, and he will see 

 what prodigies horticulture has effected. 100 The number of varieties has 

 likewise increased in a surprisingly rapid manner. Only three kinds were 

 known in France, in 1746, where this fruit was early cultivated. In 

 1766 five species had been introduced, the same which are now cultivated, 

 but only five varieties of Fragaria vesca, with some sub-varieties, had been 

 produced. At the present day the varieties of the several species are almost 

 innumerable. The species consist of, firstly, the wood or Alpine cultivated 

 strawberries, descended from F. vesca, a native of Europe and of North 

 America. There are eight wild European varieties, as ranked by Duchesne, 

 of F. vesca, but several of these are considered species by some botanists. 

 Secondly, the green strawberries, descended from the European F. collina, 

 and little cultivated in England. Thirdly, the Hautbois, from the Euro- 

 pean F. elatior. Fourthly, the Scarlets, descended from F. Virginiana, 

 a native of the whole breadth of North America. Fifthly, the Chili, de- 

 scended from F. Ohiloensis, an inhabitant of the west coast of the temperate 

 parts both of North and South America. Lastly, the Pines or Carolinas 

 (including the old Blacks), which have been ranked by most authors under 

 the name of F. grandiflora as a distinct species, said to inhabit Surinam ; 

 but this is a manifest error. This form is considered by the highest 

 authority, M. Gay, to be merely a strongly marked race of F. Ohiloensis.™ 

 These five or six forms have been ranked by most botanists as specifically 

 distinct ; but this may be doubted, for Andrew Knight, 102 who raised no less 

 than 400 crossed strawberries, asserts that the F. Virginiana, Ohiloensis, 

 and grandiflora "may be made to breed together indiscriminately," and he 

 found, m accordance with the principle of analogous variation, « that similar 

 varieties could be obtained from the seeds of any one of them " 



Since Knight's time there is abundant and additional evidence 1 ** of 

 the extent to which the American forms spontaneously cross. We owe 



" \ G ' r 7 dene «90 Cl ZT le \ilf 6 ' P - than that of F - ", or our common 



Most of the largest cultivated » . Le Frais - > le Co mte L. de 



strawberries are the descendants of F. Lambertye 1864 v 50 



grandiflora or GhOoerms and I have m < Transact. Hort,' Soc.,' vol. iii. 



seen no account of these forms in their 1820 p 207 



wild state Methuen's Scarlet (Down- m S ee an'account by Prof. Decaisne, 



mg ' Fruits, p. 527 has "immense fruit and by others in < Gardener's Chronicle,' 



of the largest size and be ongs to the 1862, p. 335, and 1858, p. 172 ; and 



section descended from FKrginiana ; Mr. Barnet's paper in < Hort. Soc. 



0* 4 and the fruit of this species as I hear Transact.,' vol. vi., 1826, p. 170. 

 05. 1 '! ;? from Prof. A. Gray, is onlv a little lamer 



